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NOAA is a huge bureaucracy, wasting millions and millions of tax dollars.  I worked in landscape and I can out-predict them 9 out of 10 times.  Here they spew doom and gloom, telling us that death and destruction will follow the trimming of their fraud and waste.  Where else can you get a great paying job that doesn't care if you're wrong more than half of the time?  Weathermen are the snake oil salesmen of our times. 

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Judge: Salvage firm can recover Titanic’s telegraph machine

OFP/AFP via Getty

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A federal judge in Virginia has ruled that a salvage firm can retrieve the Marconi wireless telegraph machine that broadcast distress calls from the sinking Titanic ocean liner.

In an order released Monday, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith agreed that the telegraph is historically and culturally important and could soon be lost within the rapidly decaying wreck site.

Smith wrote that recovering the telegraph “will contribute to the legacy left by the indelible loss of the Titanic, those who survived, and those who gave their lives in the sinking.”

Smith is the maritime jurist who presides over Titanic salvage matters from a federal court in Norfolk. Her ruling modifies a previous judge’s order from the year 2000 that forbids cutting into the shipwreck or detaching any part of it.

Smith’s order is a big win for RMS Titanic Inc., the court-recognized salvor, or steward, of the Titanic’s artifacts. The firm recently emerged from bankruptcy and is under new ownership.

The Titanic had been traveling from England to New York when it struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but about 700 of the 2,208 passengers and crew.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which represents the public’s interest in the wreck site, fiercely opposes the mission. NOAA argued in court documents that the telegraph is likely surrounded “by the mortal remains of more than 1,500 people,” and should be left alone.

The company said it plans to exhibit the ship’s telegraph with stories of the men who tapped out distress calls to nearby ships “until seawater was literally lapping at their feet.”

“The brief transmissions sent among those ships’ wireless operators, staccato bursts of information and emotion, tell the story of Titanic’s desperate fate that night: the confusion, chaos, panic, futility and fear,” the company wrote in court filings.

The proposed expedition also has been controversial among some archaeological and preservation experts, and the firm may face more legal battles before salvage vehicles can descend nearly 2.5 miles (4 kms) to the bottom of the North Atlantic.

NOAA says the expedition is prohibited under federal law and an international agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom. Those restrictions emerged in the years after the court’s 2000 order.

In her ruling, Smith acknowledged NOAA’s arguments. But she said the only matter before the court was the previous order made by the judge who preceded her.

Read more: https://apnews.com/879f8b7752bc005cab0eea2676780876

What's considered 'normal' weather in Wisconsin will change at end of 2020, to less winter snow and warmer summer nights

From JSOnline:

Meg Jones, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Weather normals will soon change in Wisconsin.

And that means the new normal will be different than the old norm — wetter with less early winter snow and warmer summer nights.

The National Weather Service uses 30 years of data to establish a pattern to compare forecasts and extreme weather. Currently, the weather service is using data from 1981 to 2010.

But starting Jan. 1, that will switch to data between 1991 and 2020, swapping out the 1980s for the most recent decade.

"What we saw from 2011 to 2019 is a fairly marked increase in precipitation and night-time low temperatures," said research meteorologist Jordan Gerth, who analyzed changes in Madison's average climate. 

Last year was the soggiest year for both Wisconsin and the entire contiguous U.S. dating to 1895. In fact, four of Wisconsin's five wettest years happened during the last decade.

Overnight low temperatures have risen, particularly from May through December. On average, December has been 6 degrees warmer since 2011 than during the 1980s.

Though it's too early to use 2020 weather statistics, Gerth's analysis shows the 30-year average low temperature for December will likely rise about 2 degrees from the previous average. 

"We were really surprised more than anything to see a bit of a shifting of the seasons. That was really evident with September tending to be warmer and December tending to be quite a bit warmer," said Gerth, who has an honorary fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington, D.C.

That will likely affect farmers since growing seasons are lengthening in Wisconsin and that boosts crop yields. It's likely affecting animals ranging from mosquitoes to white-tailed deer. And it will likely affect energy use in the state with air conditioning usage growing because of more warmth in the summer and less heating costs in the winter.

"Any living creature that has some sort of season dependence on its life cycle will feel this impact," said Gerth.

Meanwhile, seven consecutive years of above-normal precipitation and flooding have boosted high water levels across Wisconsin and the Great Lakes.

Since 2011, Madison has seen more precipitation on average than it did in the 1980s. In the last decade, most months have seen more precipitation than they used to, especially during the spring and summer. (Photo: Chart by Eric Hamilton based on data from Jordan Gerth)

Last year was the wettest year in Wisconsin dating back 125 years with more than 41 inches of liquid-equivalent precipitation. That includes measurements of melted snow.

Analyzing Madison's climate data, Gerth discovered the city has averaged 8 more inches of precipitation annually since 2011 compared to the 1980s. Plus the average duration of ice on Lake Mendota in Madison has shrunk by about three weeks since records started in the late 1800s.

The lake froze this season on Jan. 12, 2020. The latest Lake Mendota has ever closed was on Jan. 30, 1932.

Madison has gained more than 30 frost-free days since 1971. And Gerth noted that although warmer Novembers and Decembers have meant less snow, the shortage has been made up by heavier snows in January and February. That has translated into an average of 2 additional inches of snow falling in Madison since 2011 compared to the 1980s.

Madison received about 2 additional inches of snow a year in the last decade than it did 30 to 40 years ago. While November and December average less snowfall since 2011 than they did in the 1980s, that shortage is more than made up for with heavier snows in January and February. (Photo: Chart by Eric Hamilton based on data from Jordan Gerth)

Using three decades of weather statistics dates back to the 1930s, said Wisconsin State Climatologist Ed Hopkins.

Forecasters and scientists "started to notice there's some change in the climate. They tried to figure out how many years to give a relatively stable number for the average. They argued and felt that if you take averages of 30 years of numbers, it's better," Hopkins said.

"They also felt it would be a little bit too long if you wanted to use 50 years, probably because there wasn't a lot of stations (back then) that had good records dating back that long," said Hopkins. 

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From: https://www.jsonline.com/story/weather/2020/02/27/meteorologists-soon-start-use-new-30-year-weather-statistics-forecasts/4862462002/

"Weather normals will soon change in Wisconsin."

Why not give us the lottery numbers while you're at it?

-----OrbsCorbs